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15,000-Mile Service - 2014 Toyota Highlander Limited Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
edited February 2015 in Toyota
image15,000-Mile Service - 2014 Toyota Highlander Limited Long-Term Road Test

It was time to take our 2014 Toyota Highlander in for its 15,000-mile service. The tire rotation and safety inspections took less than an hour and cost us nothing.

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    ebeaudoinebeaudoin Member Posts: 509
    Nice! Sounds like a great dealership.
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    s197gts197gt Member Posts: 486
    i just don't see why they have you come in for a tire rotation and visual inspection. seems like such a waste. it's a toyota! you MIGHT have your first repair at 115k miles...
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    allthingshondaallthingshonda Member Posts: 878
    Why do you have to bring it in for a tire rotation and inspection? Honda's maintenance minder will combine services to keep you from making extra trips to the dealer.
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    schen72schen72 Member Posts: 433
    Unfortunately, Toyota still doesn't use an oil life monitoring algorithm like nearly everyone else. They stick to mileage based maintenance.
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    thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,747
    Toyota usually only requires API SN and ILSAC GF5 for its vehicles. The majority of other manufacturers have specifications that exceed those minimums.
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    steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    Come to think of it, I haven't seen a Toyota gelling/sludge complaint in quite a while. Rumor was that Toyota enlarged some oil passages to fix the problem. Maybe staying with the "lesser" specs is a good sign.
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    thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,747
    Sludge occurs everywhere that the oil is inside the engine if the oil fails. There have been some mechanical changes (includes heated PCV systems) that help the oil not have to deal with the development of crankcase acids as much as they did back in 2004-2008 and the change from ILSAC GF4 to ILSAC GF5 has gone a long way to make the oils protect themselves.
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    steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    Gee, I guess owners should switch to the "new" oil. Except, if you believe the internet, "Additives in motor oils don’t mix well with those in other brands. Over time, switching motor oils will cause engine sludge to build." (Durango Herald link)
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    thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,747
    stever said:

    "Additives in motor oils don’t mix well with those in other brands. Over time, switching motor oils will cause engine sludge to build." (Durango Herald link)

    Yeah, and when he goes out on blind dates he's a French Model....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3dklKP572Q

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    saratogastevesaratogasteve Member Posts: 186
    s197gt said:

    i just don't see why they have you come in for a tire rotation and visual inspection. seems like such a waste. it's a toyota! you MIGHT have your first repair at 115k miles...

    couldn't agree with you more. I'm sitting in a toyota dealership waiting for my tires to be rotated and some simple inspections per their 5,000 mile alert that puts a warning light on the dash board. Even though I had an appointment, it took near 30 minutes just to get checked in. They said they were short personnel today. I'm told it will take 2 hours before they are done rotating the tires. It's "free", but what a time sink.
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    saratogastevesaratogasteve Member Posts: 186
    I'm sitting in a Toyota waiting room while my Highlander gets it's 5,000 mile check up which consists of a tire rotation and some inspections. The dash board has been lit up for over a month saying 'Maintenance Required'.
    I'm typically the guy who gets minor service done at a jiffy lube type place that's either close to home or has no waiting. I think I'm like everyone else and feel spending two hours for an oil change is ridiculous. The only thing worse would be to leave the car and have to get a ride from the curtesy van or have to inconvienence someone else for a ride twice in a day. Toyota has given me the first two years of service which in my mind is the equivalent of two synthetic oil changes and 4 tire rotations. It's worth about around $150 to me. What's not worth it is the time required to get minor service done. to think I would have to invest 10 hours of my time to complete a couple oil changes and a couple tire rotations is painful. The other turn off is having to spend time at a car dealership where it's swarming with sales people trying to close deals.
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    steverstever Guest Posts: 52,454
    Looks like your link is "private" @thecardoc3.
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    thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,747
    That was a YouTube version of the old commercial about finding information on the internet "they can't put anything on the net that isn't true". It probably expired.
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    scottc3scottc3 Member Posts: 137
    As someone that is waiting for the 2017 Highlander so I can compare to the Honda Pilot, I would hope that the Toyota manual would tell you how to reset your maintenance light. I always change my own oil - takes 10 minutes, I get mobile 1 synthetic at Costco when $10 off a case - which is on sale about every other month - and Costco can rotate your tires in 30 minutes if they are not too busy - so I do when I'm there shopping. Pretty easy.
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